About Me

I love being a career and personal coach, hosting Work with Marty Nemko on KALW-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco, and being a regular contributor to PsychologyToday.com.
My latest books, my 8th, 9th and 10th are are "The Best of Marty Nemko" (3rd ed), Modern Fables, and Careers for Dummies..
Some of my best recent work appears on this blog but my 3,000 previously published writings and the archive of my radio show are free on www.martynemko.com.
If you would rather email me than post your comments on this blog, my email address is mnemko@comcast.net.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

In the previous episode, Susan's career counselor gave her a common-sense but welcomed homework assignment: explore. "Planned serendipity," the counselor called it.That's just what Susan was ready for, so she dove in. First, it was yoga. Or I should say, first she bought a $165 Lululemon yoga outfit, $68 yoga mat, and---I'm not kidding--$38 yoga towel. But while the mountain and fighter poses were fine, even the supposedly easy dog-bending-down pose was, well, infelicitous to her long-dormant body. "I can't believe some of them--They're like Cirque du Soleil contortionists." And yoga as a chance to do career networking? Not exactly: All of her classmates seemed less oriented to career than to the upward-facing-dog pose, and the conversation never got more career-related than which bodyworker to hire to heal them from yoga. But Susan liked being physical, albeit a little less so, so she signed up for a hip-hop dancing class. But her hop wasn't so hip and conversation was impossible in the next-door lounge. Susan thought, "Twenty minutes in here and you're deaf. Maybe the owner is an audiologist trying to drum up some business."Okay, so maybe that was the wrong kind of dancing. Figuring she'd merge her dancing desire with her spiritual searching, she went on a retreat, the highlight of which was moonlight nude shamanic dancing. She couldn't make herself take her clothes off. Hell, she couldn't even make herself stop laughing as they waved sage brush and incense as their bodies swayed and bounced in the moonlight.Working on Rent with the kids in the middle school kept her grounded, although there was one kid she wanted to pillory. Right before Easter vacation, that kid decided he was going to try to climb up the set---He made it halfway up before the canvas tore, right in the middle of the Empire State Building.

She felt like resurrecting him but instead attempted an Easter vacation rebirth or at least rejuvenation on a whitewater rafting trip in Costa Rica. Should she go on the Class II, Class III, or most challenging Class IV? She decided to be brave---and fell out of the boat, bobbing down the river. Thank God for a branch that stuck out. She grabbed on just before she would have been in need of resurrection. Back in Sage River, Susan sat by the fire, reflecting on her explorations and realized she needed a different sort of exploration. So she joined Rotary.The next episode is posted HERE.